Market Newsdesk

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., Aug. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its latest optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging platform powered by the company’s new Ultreon Software. This innovative imaging software combines OCT with artificial intelligence (AI) to provide physicians an enhanced, comprehensive view of coronary blood flow and blockages to assist physician decision-making and provide the best pathway for treatment.

U.S. clearance follows the recently attained CE Mark in Europe, providing broader access to the latest OCT imaging platform for interventional cardiologists seeking to utilize the latest in AI-powered technology. Ultreon Software integrates with Abbott’s new Dragonfly OpStar imaging catheter and PressureWire X guidewire to provide physicians access to a broad set of tools to assess coronary blood flow and blockages and improve treatment planning for patients.   

“Abbott’s new Ultreon Software for OCT provides an automated, comprehensive view of the artery that facilitates physician decision-making,” said Ziad Ali, M.D.D.Phil, director of the DeMatteis Cardiovascular Institute at St. Francis Hospital and Heart Center in New York. “Ultreon Software guides stents to be placed with precision. These types of innovative technologies are instrumental in providing the best care for our patients.”

Earlier this year, an annual study by Abbott titled Beyond Intervention revealed that physicians view forward-thinking and innovative technologies as critical components to providing the best patient care. According to the research, 83.2% of physicians agreed that advances in diagnostic and treatment technologies, such as OCT, have translated to tangible improvements in patient care.¹

“As cardiologists continue to adopt OCT and move away from traditional imaging methods such as angiography, emerging technologies are pivotal to determine the best course of patient care,” said Nick West, M.D., chief medical officer and divisional vice president of global medical affairs at Abbott’s vascular business. “AI enables Ultreon Software to automatically detect calcium and vessel diameters allowing doctors to put stents exactly where they are needed.”

The launch of Ultreon Software for OCT in the United States demonstrates Abbott’s commitment to continual innovation in the global vascular community with the latest medical devices and technologies. For example, recent data shows that when OCT is paired with Abbott’s MLD MAX, a new workflow that helps guide and optimize stenting decisions, physicians have altered their treatment strategy in treating 88% of coronary artery blockages.² Abbott’s latest technologies play a vital role in improving cardiovascular patient care and achieving optimal outcomes during and after intervention. For U.S. important safety information on Ultreon, visit: https://abbo.tt/3qAujzc

Abbott showcased Ultreon Software for the first time at EuroPCR 2021 and recently received approval in Japan.

About Abbott:
Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 109,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/abbott-/, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews.

 

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SOURCE Abbott

TORONTO, Aug. 3, 2021 /CNW/ – Scotiabank today announced the closing of its inaugural USD 1 billion 3-year Sustainability Bond offering, in support of the Bank’s commitment to making a positive impact and creating better communities for every future. Net proceeds from the Sustainability Bond offering will be used to fund the financing or refinancing, in whole or in part, eligible green and/or social assets, which refer to new or existing assets, businesses or projects that meet the Scotiabank Sustainable Bond Framework Eligibility Criteria.

This is the largest Sustainability Bond issued by a Canadian Financial or Corporate to date. A portion of the proceeds of this bond will help advance women-led businesses through The Scotiabank Women Initiative™ – a comprehensive program that supports women clients across all four business lines at Scotiabank and is dedicated to helping women take their businesses to the next level through Access to Capital, Mentorship, and Education.

“Our clients look to Scotiabank for leadership in financing sustainable business growth,” said Jake Lawrence, Group Head and CEO, Global Banking and Markets at Scotiabank. “We are proud to have launched this USD 1 billion Sustainability Bond with three Diversity & Inclusion firms as active co-managers and to build on Scotiabank’s commitment to drive the evolution and enhancement of social responsibility initiatives.”

Scotiabank’s approach to sustainability is intended to deliver economic, social and environmental value to our customers, our operations and the world around us. Following the Green Bond issuance in 2019, Scotiabank updated its framework to the Sustainable Bond Framework in order to help investors align themselves better to various environmental and climate-related issues via participation in a Sustainability Bond offering.  

The Sustainable Bond Framework categories include all of those listed in the Green Bond Framework as well as the following additional social categories:

Scotiabank launched its Sustainable Bond Framework in July 2021. The framework has received a Second-Party Opinion from Sustainalytics, a global leader in ESG and Corporate Governance research and ratings, and is in line with the Green Bond Principles 2021, Social Bond Principles 2021, and the Sustainability Bond Guidelines 2021, as administered by the International Capital Market Association.

“This is a significant milestone from a funding program and diversification perspective,” said Christy Bunker, SVP, Canadian Banking and Global Wealth Management Treasurer, Term Funding & Capital Management, Scotiabank. “This new Bond enables the Bank to expand our use of proceeds to include assets such as those originated through The Scotiabank Women Initiative among other social categories.”

“We all have an important role to play in driving a positive impact on society while enabling sustainable development and the transition to a low-carbon economy for current and future generations,” said Meigan Terry, SVP, Chief Communications and Social Impact Officer at Scotiabank. “This inaugural Sustainability Bond offering helps Scotiabank put into practice the commitment we have made to improve society and drive meaningful change for every future.”

Earlier this year, the Bank launched its inaugural Net Zero Research Fund as part of its commitment to pursuing Net Zero targets and Pathways. Scotiabank has committed to establishing bank-wide, quantitative, time-bound targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with our underwriting and lending activities. To get there, Scotiabank is undertaking a quantitative analysis of the greenhouse gas intensity of the Bank’s loan book and underwriting activities, research on pathways to net zero, development of plans and targets for reducing emissions, and creation of a reporting framework to ensure transparency.   

In addition to today’s announcement, Scotiabank continues to build on the following sustainability initiatives:

• Served as bookrunner on more than $10 billion of green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds since 2014
• Achieved a 20% reduction in operational greenhouse gas emissions from 2016 levels
• Contributed nearly $85 million to communities through donations, community sponsorships, employee volunteering and other types of community investment
• Launched ScotiaRISE – a 10-year, $500 million initiative to promote economic resilience among disadvantaged groups
• To date we have committed $3 billion to support women-owned and women-led businesses
• Renewed our five-year Diversity and Inclusion Goals, with a focus on people who identify as Black, Indigenous peoples, visible minorities, People with Disabilities and Women
• For the third consecutive year, achieved top 1% in Corporate Governance among financial institutions globally according to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and awarded a perfect score on Anti-Crime Policies
• Strengthened our commitment to responsible procurement and supplier diversity by joining the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council, and became an Aboriginal Procurement Champion for the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business
• Published our second Green Bond Report to provide investors with an overview of the estimated impact of the use of proceeds in July 2021.
• Received a “AAA” rating from MSCI, a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community – held by only 2% of banks globally.
• About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: “for every future”, we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of approximately 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.1 trillion (as at April 30, 2021), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @ScotiabankViews.

About The Scotiabank Women Initiative

The Scotiabank Women Initiative is a comprehensive program designed to break down barriers and increase economic opportunity for women to be successful, now and in the future, by providing unbiased access to Capital & Tailored Solutions; Bespoke Specialized Education; and Holistic Advisory Services & Mentorship. A unique offering soon to be embedded across Scotiabank’s footprint (International Banking to be launched later this year), The Scotiabank Women Initiative provides equal access to financing for women-owned and led-businesses within Canadian Business Banking; helps women clients pursue their best professional futures within Global Banking and Markets, and helps women take charge of their financial futures through Education, Advice, and Access to Wealth Management Services within Global Wealth Management,. For more information on The Scotiabank Women Initiative, visit scotiabankwomeninitiative.com.

SOURCE Scotiabank

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Aug. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, HR and Payroll software provider Paylocity announced continued momentum and adoption of its Modern Workforce Solutions that include innovative features such as Community, Premium Video, Surveys, Learning Management and the recently launched Modern Workforce Index. Companies are leveraging these features to help elevate the employee experience in the current competitive environment, where attracting and retaining talent has become paramount. The company has also received recognition for these solutions from third-party organizations including G2 and Lighthouse Research and Advisory.

In the fiscal year ending June 30, client usage of Community announcements on the Paylocity platform increased by over 150% year-over-year, and total announcements doubled this Spring compared to the same period in 2020. Community is a single source for announcements, group collaboration, and messaging that improves communication effectiveness and employee engagement compared to broadcast emails or antiquated intranets. Monthly unique visitors of Community on the Paylocity platform doubled in the last year, and employees created hundreds of thousands of interactions per month, including reactions and comments. Most of this activity happens on mobile devices, where the employee user experience mirrors the social media apps that people are accustomed to using every day, including the use of video. Community has seen rapid adoption by companies with dispersed workforces – including mobile and remote employees, contractors and shift workers, or other “deskless” workers that may not have regular access to corporate email or computer terminals.

In addition, monthly video creation in the last four months steadily outpaced the first four months of 2021, and the number of videos created on the platform as of June 2021 was nearly triple the total from December 2020 as clients use videos across the platform in Community, Learning Management, Onboarding, and Recruiting.

Another increasingly popular capability of the Paylocity platform is the ability to generate Surveys to uncover employee needs and open the door for ongoing and transparent conversations.  Millions of surveys were completed last year using the Paylocity platform, including popular ready-to-use templates available to customers.

Michigan-based manufacturer Revere Plastics relies on Paylocity to create a strong culture and compete with larger chains to attract and retain talent. Kristi Stuetzer, VP of HR for Revere Plastics commented, “We needed a system that could help build our culture, connect our 1,200 employees across nine plants, and give our HR team useful data. Paylocity cut our HR team’s onboarding work by 25-30% and helped us increase engagement with Surveys, Community, and Video, and our employees have embraced these tools.” When Revere Plastics transitioned its employee NPS survey to Paylocity, the response rate went from less than 1% to more than 40%. Stuetzer explained that Paylocity is helping “build relationships with people and build our culture. And for the first time, now we have a pulse on both.”

Paylocity clients also have access to deep insights into their organization through the Modern Workforce Index (MWI). Built with patent-pending artificial intelligence, MWI is a unified dashboard of how well clients are doing with step-by-step ways to improve engagement. They can see their overall scores and compare performance to peers – then break down results across tool utilization, employee sentiment, and organizational health. Companies with higher MWI scores show 15-25% lower attrition and higher headcount growth.

VStyles, a collection of hair salon franchises in Southern California with 150 employees, was unable to gain relevant business insights, such as company turnover, with their prior human capital management system. VStyles transitioned to Paylocity to accommodate specific compliance and regulatory needs and gain efficiencies in reporting. Using MWI, they were also able to index where the salons were against the industry and make decisions with data driving the strategic vision for the franchises. “When we first accessed the data insights, we realized our turnover rate was high relative to peers in our industry,” said VStyles Owner and HR Director Christy van de Sande. “We made some changes internally, such as offering incentives for employees who stayed longer than a year. We also spent more time training and investing in our employees’ future. After our second year with Paylocity, our turnover was cut by more than 60%. It’s gratifying as an owner to know that your investments are paying off,” continued van de Sande.

Outside Recognition for Paylocity

Clients have also validated Paylocity’s solutions through endorsements on G2. Paylocity was named an Overall Leader in seven HR and payroll product categories for enterprise and 12 categories for mid-market based on customer reviews. In addition, the company was awarded the “Best Solution for Talent Development” in the 2021 HR Tech Awards from Lighthouse Research and Advisory.  Earlier this year, Paylocity also received the Top 100 BEST Award from the Association for Talent Development for excellence in building modern employee learning solutions.

Paylocity’s continued growth and momentum is complemented by its leadership team’s commitment to building a culture of caring for its customers and employees. Recent awards and recognition reinforce Paylocity’s focus on retaining and attracting the best talent to serve clients. Paylocity ranked on the “Crain’s Fast 50” list of the fastest-growing companies in the Chicago area for the eighth consecutive time and was recognized by Yahoo as one of the Top 20 companies with the happiest employees. The company once again was named Great Place to Work-Certified™ for 2021 by the GPTW Institute, a global authority in workplace culture. Paylocity’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Beauchamp received a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award honoring the Top CEOs among large companies in 2021 for the fourth time, and Paylocity’s enterprise sales team was named both National Sales Team of the Year and Field Sales Team of the Year at the 15th Annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. 

About Paylocity
Paylocity (NASDAQ: PCTY) is a leading provider of cloud-based HR and payroll software solutions headquartered in Schaumburg, IL. Founded in 1997 and publicly traded since 2014, Paylocity offers an intuitive, easy-to-use product suite that helps businesses tackle today’s challenges while moving them toward the promise of tomorrow. Known for its unique culture and consistently recognized as one of the best places to work, Paylocity accompanies its clients on the journey to create great workplaces and help people achieve their best through automation, data-driven insights, and engagement. For more information, visit www.paylocity.com.

CONTACT:  
Kellie Flaherty 
Walker Sands, for Paylocity 
[email protected]  
773-459-6954 

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SOURCE Paylocity

ARMONK, N.Y. and OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Aug. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Black & Veatch today announced a collaboration to jointly market Asset Performance Management (APM) solutions, including remote monitoring technologies that combine near real-time data analytics with artificial intelligence to help customers keep equipment and assets running at peak performance and reliability.

The companies are collaborating on solutions combining Black & Veatch Asset Management Services (AMS) and digital analytics with IBM Maximo Application Suite. These solutions are designed to help organizations support more resilient operations for industrial, energy and utilities assets. Black & Veatch operates four monitoring and diagnostics centers and has vast experience with near real-time, detection and analysis of emerging problems by running thousands of models and scenarios to predict changes in asset performance. IBM Maximo Application Suite’s Assist, Monitor, Health, Predict and Visual Inspection capabilities aim to integrate Black & Veatch monitoring and diagnostics expertise and data analytics with maintenance management to bring them into the field where the insights can be applied.

The two companies are also planning to expand the IBM Digital Twin Exchange using Black & Veatch’s digital twin asset models. “Digital twins will be a necessary part of the industrial sector’s digital future because of the detailed understanding they provide and expert analysis they enable for complex assets,” said Dave Brill, Vice President and Director of Asset Management Services with Black & Veatch. “The IBM Digital Twin Exchange can make this level of understanding more accessible by connecting customers in asset-intensive industries and in need of digital twins with members of IBM’s rapidly growing partner ecosystem that can share their models. As part of this collaboration, Black & Veatch plans to develop digital twin asset models to sell through the Digital Twin Exchange, expanding the library’s inventory.”

Faced with aging equipment, tightening budgets, increased regulation and rapidly changing market dynamics, operators and engineers require increased visibility into their equipment performance and asset conditions. Remote monitoring technology can help organizations understand their assets better by providing a near real-time view of operations. Once data is collected, it can enable both predictive and conditions-based maintenance, where problems are proactively corrected before they escalate into system breakdown, in an effort to limit downtime and maximize productivity.

As assets and facilities continue to evolve and the volume of data they generate grows, knowing how to effectively manage and use this information is a major challenge for many organizations. As a result, the dashboards used for monitoring data can be overwhelming and have so many alerts that important ones may be ignored. AI and machine learning can help bridge that gap and reduce this “alarm fatigue” by sorting through the thousands of incoming datapoints, so organizations can prioritize alerts and decisively plan their actions. This collaboration combines IBM’s software, artificial intelligence and machine learning expertise with Black & Veatch’s engineering expertise to offer solutions that can help reduce thousands of incoming data points to a handful of actionable escalations by making predictions and then screening and diagnosing alerts. With more than 20 years of experience in near real-time data analytics, Black & Veatch provides a deep understanding of how facilities and systems operate, and its expertise and models are used to train IBM’s AI to help detect anomalies and support monitoring at scale.

“Organizations in every industry need to figure out how to use the vast amounts of data generated within their own systems,” said Kareem Yusuf, IBM General Manager AI Applications and Blockchain. “Monitoring insights that combine AI and machine learning technology with deep industry expertise can help organizations make better sense of their data and use it to manage their assets better. IBM and Black & Veatch are collaborating to deliver insights that can be applied to improve the performance of assets and extend their lifespans.”

Black and Veatch is part of IBM’s partner ecosystem helping unlock the value of Industry 4.0 by accelerating the adoption of open hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence for clients in essential industries such as manufacturing, energy, retail, and smart cities. IBM’s partner ecosystem is designed to fuel hybrid cloud environments by helping clients manage and modernize workloads from the mainframe to the edge and everything in between with Red Hat OpenShift, a leading enterprise Kubernetes platform.

For more information on remote monitoring and asset maintenance, visit here.

About Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch is an employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2020 exceeded US$3.0 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media.

About IBM
For more information about IBM Maximo Application Suite please visit ibm.com/maximo.

IBM Media Contact 
Anthony Colucci 
[email protected]

Black & Veatch Media Contact Information: 
MELINA VISSAT | +1 303-256-4065 P | +1 617-595-8009 M | [email protected] 
24-HOUR MEDIA HOTLINE | +1 866-496-9149

 

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SOURCE IBM

SALT LAKE CITY and LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — 3M (NYSE: MMM) and Waystar, a leading provider of healthcare payments software, today announced they have entered into a strategic partnership to provide revenue capture solutions to clients of 3M Health Information Systems division. In collaboration with 3M, Waystar’s AI-powered technology will allow providers, health systems and hospitals to improve operational efficiency and compliance and collect appropriate, fuller reimbursement.

Revenue integrity remains a top concern for hospital and health system CFOs and revenue executives. Yet, less than half (44 percent) said their organizations have established programs to prevent revenue leakage, revenue degradation and compliance risk. With healthcare organizations facing the combined pressures of rising costs, thinning margins and staffing shortages, it’s critical for healthcare organizations to implement solutions that increase efficiency and protect revenue.

Waystar’s revenue capture solutions leverage data from claims processed on its platform, representing 500,000 providers and 40% of the U.S. population. Waystar’s solutions go beyond a rule-based approach, with predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms that analyze historical data to identify patterns. This new partnership will combine Waystar’s automated, AI-powered Charge Integrity, DRG Anomaly and Transfer DRG technology with 3M’s services team, which can implement the change management needed to keep workflows up to date. Leveraging Waystar’s technology, 3M clients can identify possible missing charges, underpayments and overpayments —automatically identifying potential incorrect and under-coded claims before they are submitted. Together, Waystar and 3M will empower healthcare organizations to move away from manual processes and embrace automated, data-driven workflows.

“The healthcare industry has long been marked by administrative waste and inefficiency,” said Waystar Chief Executive Officer Matt Hawkins. “We are proud to bring artificial intelligence to help 3M clients solve these perennial challenges and take the manual work out of healthcare payments. Through our collaboration, we are now able to combine the best of Waystar’s technology with 3M’s expertise in organizational change. Together, we will empower health systems and hospitals to prevent revenue loss, operate more efficiently and free up resources for patient care.”

3M works with more than 6,000 health systems and hospitals across the U.S. By combining Waystar’s technology expertise and 3M’s ability to usher in organizational change, the partnership will help targeted healthcare organizations put the processes in place to efficiently collect on the missing charges identified.

“At 3M, we are committed to providing innovative solutions that allow health systems and hospitals to solve their administrative challenges and more effectively capture revenue they’re appropriately owed,” said Elizabeth Guyton, vice president, 3M Health Information Systems. “Our collaboration with Waystar brings together a more comprehensive, end-to-end revenue cycle—from capture to coding to appropriate payment—for our clients.”

For more information on Waystar’s Revenue Capture solutions, please visit waystar.com.

About 3M
At 3M (NYSE: MMM), we apply science in collaborative ways to improve lives daily. With $32 billion in sales, our 96,000 employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com or on Twitter @3M or @3MNews.

About Waystar


Waystar
 provides next-generation, cloud-based technology that simplifies and unifies healthcare payments. The Waystar platform removes friction in payment processes, streamlines workflows and improves financials for providers in every care setting. Waystar products have won Best in KLAS® or Category Leader every year since 2010 and earned multiple #1 rankings from Black Book™ surveys since 2012. The Waystar platform supports more than 500,000 providers, 1,000 health systems and hospitals, and 5,000 payers and health plans. Waystar is backed by EQT, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Bain Capital. For more information, visit waystar.com or follow @Waystar on Twitter

Contact: [email protected]

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SOURCE Waystar